Important news from last night and this morning (December 29-December 30)

Ethereum validator entry queue size rose to about twice the size of exit queue for the first time in six months, indicating a rebound in staking demand.

According to Cointelegraph, the size of the Ethereum validator entry queue has surged to almost double the size of the exit queue for the first time in six months. This growth indicates a rebound in staking demand, primarily driven by digital asset treasury companies such as BitMine, and possibly supported by the Pectra upgrade.

A certain address opened a long position of 300 BTC 7 hours ago, becoming one of the top 5 long positions in Hyperliquid BTC.

According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, address 0x931…ae7a3 opened a long position of 300 BTC 7 hours ago, becoming one of the top 5 long positions in Hyperliquid BTC. Currently, this $26 million BTC long position has an average opening price of $87,965.3, a floating loss of $239,000, and a liquidation price of $86,073.7. The account holder also set a stop-loss and take-profit range of $79,419-$109,496, meaning a stop-loss at $79,419 and a take-profit at $109,496.

Spot palladium plunged more than 15% intraday, currently trading at $1610.84 per ounce.

Spot palladium plunged more than 15% intraday, currently trading at $1,610.84 per ounce.

Spot silver plunges 10% intraday.

Spot silver plunged 10.14% intraday, currently trading at $71.26 per ounce.

Dragonfly Partner: BTC will break $150,000 by the end of 2026, but its market share will decline.

Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb shared his predictions for 2026, with the following key points: BTC will break $150,000 by the end of the year, although its market share will decline. Fintech public chains such as Tempo, Arc, and RobinhoodChain may underperform market expectations; in contrast, Ethereum and Solana will exceed expectations, and top developers will continue to choose neutral infrastructure public chains. A major tech company (such as Google, Facebook, or Apple) will launch or acquire a crypto wallet in 2026. Three major Perp DEXs will occupy 90% of the market share in this sector, with other projects only able to compete for the remaining 10%. Equity investment will grow rapidly, accounting for more than 20% of total DeFi investment by the end of the year. The supply of stablecoins will increase by about 60% in 2026, with USD stablecoins maintaining a share of over 99%, and USDT's dominance slightly declining to about 55%. The Clarity Act will officially become law, but will require significant negotiation. Prediction markets will develop rapidly, but 90% of prediction market products will be ignored and gradually disappear by the end of the year. The main applications of artificial intelligence in the field of encryption are still limited to software engineering and security, while other applications are still in the prototype stage.

Delphi Digital: GameFi funding has dropped by over 55% year-on-year this year, while Web 2.5 games are quietly rising in popularity.

PANews reported on December 30th that Delphi Digital stated, "2025 will be a tough year for GameFi. Funding has decreased by over 55% year-over-year. The most anticipated projects have underperformed, and market enthusiasm is low. But the overall situation is more complex. We are witnessing the quiet rise of Web 2.5 games. These games treat blockchain as pure infrastructure, often completely skipping the token stage and competing on actual revenue. Studios like Fumb Games, Mythical Games, and Wemade/Wemix are generating substantial revenue while utilizing blockchain in their own unique ways. Blockchain has improved profit margins, enhanced user engagement, or introduced new revenue streams. While Web3 native games have generated six- to seven-figure revenues this year, the player base is small and rife with bots. Once the incentive mechanism fails, the fun of the game disappears, although some teams are trying new models to address this issue." Web 2.5 studios can now leverage the advantages of blockchain without forcing users to speculate or making excuses for poor user experiences. The adoption of stablecoins should accelerate this trend. Microtransactions, global payment channels, and participation-based reward mechanisms will all become more convenient.

FrameworkVentures co-founder: In 2026, the market will focus on mainstream tokens, and institutions will continue to flock to high-quality DeFi projects.

Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures, wrote: "2025 may not be the year the crypto industry anticipates to be glorious, but it is very likely a necessary transitional year for the industry's continued development. The industry has largely moved away from memes, NFTs, low-circulation, high-FDV projects, and the overall consumer-oriented narrative. I predict that token issuance will sharply decrease in 2026, the market will focus more on mainstream assets (ETH, BTC), and institutional funds will continue to flow into DeFi blue-chip projects with reasonable value capture mechanisms. This buying power may far exceed expectations, especially with the combined effect of continuous buybacks and high financial self-discipline at the protocol layer. The future direction of the industry is clear: stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), lending and capital markets, and asset management will become dominant. We will solve many problems in the cryptocurrency field through meticulous cultivation, reducing blind expansion, and compliant operations. This is a bullish pattern, but rebound, surge, and exit opportunities will be highly concentrated."

Billionaire Grant Cardone announced plans to launch the world's largest real estate Bitcoin company in 2026.

According to a video shared by CarbonSilicon AI co-founder @KKaWSB, billionaire Grant Cardone, CEO of real estate investment firm Cardone Capital, has just announced that he will launch the world's largest real estate Bitcoin company in 2026, aiming to become the next Michael Saylor. He stated, "We will create the world's largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. We will use the cash flow from real estate—monthly rental income, and depreciation—to buy Bitcoin. Since March of this year, we have completed five transactions. We will accumulate 3,000 Bitcoins by the end of next year. This is the new model: real estate plus Bitcoin. It's like Michael Saylor's model, but we have real cash flow."

One wallet saw its assets grow from $5,000 to $133,000 in two months simply by trading ETH on Lighter.

According to MLM monitoring, a wallet deposited 5,000 USDC into Lighter approximately two months ago (October 24th). Through trading ETH alone, its assets appear to have grown to approximately $133,000 (approximately 26.6x / a return of approximately +2,560%). Over the past 7 days, this address appears to have accounted for approximately 59% of the ETHUSD taker trading volume ($1.72 billion) and approximately 9% of the total number of ETHUSD taker trades (approximately 115,000 trades) on Lighter. Based on Lighter's API and block explorer data, the account appears to be trading with zero fees, and no other funds have been transferred or deposited besides the initial $5,000. Using taker algorithms to trade and profit does not inherently constitute wash trading, as wash trading requires matching one's own orders. Considering its initial size, this performance is noteworthy.

Lighter has withdrawn 32.05 million USDC to its treasury address, of which approximately 7.5 million USDC have entered the LLP.

According to MLM monitoring, Lighter has withdrawn 32.05 million USDC to its treasury address, while approximately 100,000 USDC remain in Lighter's fee wallet. Of these 32.05 million USDC, approximately 8.6 million USDC have been deposited back into Lighter since October 16th, with about 7.5 million USDC going into LLP (the fees generated will be returned to the holders and reflected in LLP revenue). This is somewhat unusual, as this arrangement has never been publicly disclosed or mentioned in documents before—meaning approximately 25% of total revenue has been used for this purpose. The remaining approximately 21.9 million USDC were transferred to a Coinbase escrow address.

A whale that previously sold 255 BTC has increased its short BTC position and opened new short positions in ETH and SOL.

PANews reported on December 30th that, according to Onchain Lens monitoring, a whale that previously sold 255 BTC has further increased its short position in BTC (10x leverage) and opened new short positions in ETH (10x leverage) and SOL (20x leverage). The current total value of its holdings is $169 million: 36,281 ETH (worth $106.5 million); 552.25 BTC (worth $48.16 million); and 114,677.21 SOL (worth $14.13 million).

Meta's multi-billion dollar acquisition of Manus, the company that develops AI applications, has a butterfly effect.

According to Jinshi News, Meta acquired Butterfly Effect, the company that develops the AI application Manus, for billions of dollars. This is Meta's third-largest acquisition since its inception, second only to WhatsApp and ScaleAI. Prior to the acquisition, Manus was reportedly raising a new round of funding at a valuation of $2 billion. Liu Yuan, a partner at ZhenFund and an angel investor in Butterfly Effect, said the acquisition negotiations were completed in a very short time, lasting only about ten days. Manus and Meta Platforms (META.O) each released statements on their respective websites announcing Manus's joining Meta, but the statements did not disclose specific details of the transaction.

The total market capitalization of tokenized stocks has risen to $1.2 billion, a record high.

According to Cointelegraph, data from Token Terminal shows that the total market capitalization of tokenized stocks has climbed to a record $1.2 billion, driven by strong growth in September and December. Token Terminal stated, "Tokenized stocks today are like stablecoins in 2020," highlighting that the market is still in its early stages. In 2020, stablecoins were still in their infancy, but this year they have grown into a $300 billion industry. Other industry insiders have likened tokenized stocks to the DeFi boom of early 2020, pointing to the potential for more global stocks to be on-chain, benefiting from faster settlement speeds, 24/7 trading, and divisible ownership.

BlackRock's first tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, has paid out over $100 million in dividends.

According to Finance Feeds, BlackRock's first tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, has paid out over $100 million in dividends since its launch, indicating that tokenized securities have moved beyond the pilot and proof-of-concept stages and are now being used in practice. The fund reportedly invests in short-term dollar-denominated instruments such as U.S. Treasury bonds, repurchase agreements, and cash equivalents.

Cicely LaMothe, deputy director of the SEC's Corporate Finance Division, is retiring after developing crypto guidelines.

According to The Block, Cicely LaMothe, the Deputy Director of the Corporate Finance Division at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is retiring after playing a key role in shaping the agency's approach to cryptocurrency regulation. The SEC announced LaMothe's retirement in a statement on Monday. The SEC stated that over the past year, LaMothe was involved in drafting several important employee statements concerning cryptocurrencies, including a statement clarifying that Memecoin is not a security and a statement explaining the agency's stance on staking. In addition to cryptocurrency-related matters, LaMothe also led policy recommendations for draft prospectuses submitted by companies.

Trend Research increased its holdings by over 46,000 ETH in a single day, continuously lowering its average cost basis.

According to @ai_9684xtpa, Trend Research withdrew another 13,462 ETH (approximately $39.31 million) from Binance 5 minutes ago, bringing its daily increase to 46,036.72 ETH. The current total on-chain ETH holdings have increased to 626,071, with a total market capitalization exceeding $1.83 billion. The average cost has decreased to approximately $3,105.5, resulting in a paper loss of approximately $110 million.

CME launches reference rates and real-time indices for Aptos, Bittensor, and Hedera.

According to a CME Group announcement, its cryptocurrency benchmark pricing system has added USD reference exchange rates and real-time indices for three native tokens: Aptos, Bittensor, and Hedera, providing a more transparent pricing service. Users can view the relevant price data on the CME website starting today.

ZachXBT exposes Canadian scammer Haby's involvement in a $2 million Coinbase fake customer service scam.

According to ZachXBT, a Canadian man named Haby (also known as Haverd) committed social engineering fraud over the past year by impersonating Coinbase customer service, stealing over $2 million and squandering it on expensive social media accounts, parties, and gambling. He boasted in a group chat about stealing 21,000 XRP (approximately $44,000), and multiple on-chain addresses were linked to at least five other Coinbase user asset thefts, totaling over $1.06 million. ZachXBT confirmed his identity by tracing his BTC address through wallet screenshots and on-chain fund flows, and also exposed his Telegram account and email address.

Bitmine purchased an additional 44,463 ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to over 4.11 million ETH.

According to Bitmine's official press release, as of December 28, 2025, Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) purchased 44,463 ETH (approximately $130 million) in one week, bringing its current ETH holdings to 4,110,525, with a market capitalization of approximately $12.04 billion, representing 3.41% of the total Ethereum supply. Of these, 409,000 ETH are currently staked, with an estimated annual yield of 2.81%. Bitmine is advancing its MAVAN (US-based staking network) staking solution, planned for launch in Q1 2026. Furthermore, Bitmine's total crypto assets and cash reserves amount to $13.2 billion, and it plans to hold its annual shareholder meeting on January 15, 2026, in Las Vegas to push forward four proposals, including authorized share capital expansion and incentive plans. The company aims to hold 5% of the total ETH supply, becoming the world's largest Ethereum treasury.

SoftBank will acquire private equity firm DigitalBridge Group for $16 per share in cash.

SoftBank will acquire private equity firm DigitalBridge Group (DBRG.N) for $16 per share in cash, a 15% premium over the closing price on December 26. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026.

Binance Alpha will list oooo (OOOO) on December 30th.

Binance Chinese tweeted that Binance Alpha will become the first platform to list oooo (OOOO) on December 30th. Eligible users can claim the airdrop using Binance Alpha Points on the Alpha event page after trading opens on Alpha. Further details will be announced later.

Trend Research withdrew another 5,011 ETH from Binance, bringing its holdings to over 610,000 ETH.

According to @ai_9684xtpa, Trend Research withdrew another 5,011 ETH (approximately $14.68 million) from Binance a few minutes ago, bringing its on-chain holdings to 612,609 ETH, with a market value of approximately $1.79 billion. The average cost of the position is approximately $3,109.58, resulting in a floating loss of approximately $107 million.

Data: Of the 533 token sales in 2025, only 12% remained profitable.

According to CryptoRank data, 533 public token sales were held in 2025, with only 63 projects having a current price higher than their offering price, accounting for 11.82%. Approximately 88.18% of tokens are currently priced below their offering price. Although some projects, such as PUMP, raised $600 million and achieved a 2.19x return at its peak, it has now fallen to 0.48x. In the short term, about 58% of tokens saw a 3-6x increase at their opening, but most failed to maintain this momentum. The most profitable project of the year was MYX, with a peak return of 2103x, and it still maintains a return of over 385x. Overall, the sluggish market and speculative sentiment have driven token investment towards a more short-term approach.

Strategy purchased another 1,229 bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to over 672,000 bitcoins.

According to Strategy's 8-K filing with the SEC, as of December 28, 2025, the company raised $108.8 million through its ATM stock sale program and purchased 1,229 BTC between December 22 and 28, at an average purchase price of $88,568 per BTC. As of that date, the company held a total of 672,497 BTC, with a total purchase cost of approximately $50.44 billion and an average holding cost of $74,997 per BTC.

Data shows that nearly 70% of Polymarket addresses are operating at a loss, with only about 30% currently profitable.

According to defioasis.eth, of the 1,733,785 trading addresses on Polymarket, approximately 70% have incurred losses, while only about 30% are profitable. Only 0.0385% of the top-performing addresses account for over 70% of the total profits, accumulating $3.7 billion. Nearly 25% of addresses are profitable, but only in the $0–$1,000 range, representing less than 1% of total profits. Over 63.5% of addresses have losses not exceeding $1,000, but 149 addresses have lost over $1 million. This data is based on realized profits and losses, excluding floating open positions.

CoinShares: Digital asset investment products saw net outflows of approximately $446 million last week.

According to CoinShares, digital asset investment products saw a net outflow of approximately $446 million last week, bringing the cumulative outflow since October 10th to approximately $3.2 billion, indicating that sentiment has not yet recovered. The United States was the main source of outflows ($460 million), with Switzerland experiencing a slight outflow ($14.2 million). Germany recorded a net inflow of approximately $35.7 million, bringing its cumulative inflow this month to approximately $248 million. XRP and Solana have continued to attract funds since the launch of their US stock ETFs in mid-month, with net inflows of approximately $70.2 million and $7.5 million respectively last week, bringing their cumulative inflows to approximately $10.7 billion and $13.4 billion respectively. In contrast, Bitcoin and Ethereum saw net outflows of approximately $443 million and $59.5 million respectively last week, with cumulative net outflows of approximately $2.8 billion and $1.6 billion respectively since their ETF launches. Total AUM has only increased by about 10% this year.

Six major crypto companies, including Kraken, Consensys, and BitGo, plan to IPO in 2026.

According to DL News, crypto companies raised approximately $3.4 billion in IPOs this year, with Circle and Bullish both exceeding $1 billion. Looking ahead to 2026: Kraken filed its S-1 petition with the SEC in November 2025, aiming for a listing in the first half of the year; Consensys, along with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, is pushing for a mid-year IPO, with its core products being MetaMask, Infura, and Linea; BitGo updated its S-1A, targeting a Q1 listing with a valuation of approximately $1.75 billion; Animoca Brands plans a reverse merger with Currenc Group to list on Nasdaq, targeting a valuation of approximately $6 billion; Ledger is preparing a large-scale financing round to strengthen its Ledger Live and self-custody businesses; Bithumb plans to list in South Korea by the end of 2025, regaining approximately 25% of the domestic market share.